Thursday, June 23, 2011

All credit to Boom! for figuring out a way to squeeze the most out of its last two "classic Disney" comics releases. The second part of Romano Scarpa's adventure "The Treasure of Marco Topo" (1984) wasn't originally supposed to be in WDC&S #720, but the company wisely bumped a previously announced feature so as to slip Scarpa's entire story under the wire before the guillotine fell. (Those metaphors aren't mixed, they're positively tangled!). The last-minute switch actually wound up making a whole lot of sense, as Scarpa's tale, with its clever and entertaining crossover of the Duck and Mouse "universes," frankly deserved to appear in WDC&S, the omnibus comics title par excellence. "Here's to the greatest bunch of characters I know!" Mickey declares at the end of "Topo." If this is, in fact, fated to be the last original line of dialogue ever delivered in WDC&S, then it would be hard to come up with a more fitting one.

These last two issues' return to the "first principles" of Disney comics -- create funny and memorable characters, let 'em bounce off of one another, and watch what happens -- stand in marked contrast to Boom!'s original plans for these titles. WDC&S and MICKEY MOUSE both began life at Boom! as wholly unrecognizable entities -- WDC&S as the home of the Ultraheroes, MM as the home of WIZARDS OF MICKEY. Both "New Directions" were actually somewhat faithful to the spirits of the titles that housed them, just in completely off-the-wall ways. Once ULTRAHEROES and WOM split off to go their merry way (assuming that full-scale power-dives into the Earth's surface qualify even tangentially as "merry"), Boom! caught lightning in a bottle with Casty in WDC&S and kept MICKEY readable with a generally good mixture of new and old material. It wasn't enough to save the day, but "Topo" allows Boom! to cede its control of these titles with a considerable amount of grace.

The story of Mickey's search for a golden gondola ornament hidden in Venice by his ancestor Marco Topo contains surprisingly little "real" action -- at least, less than originally seems to be promised by a European treasure jaunt involving Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Scrooge, Brigitta MacBridge, Pete, Trudy Van Tubb, and The Phantom Blot. (Where are Donald and his Nephews, you ask? Let co-scripter Joe Torcivia enlighten you on that point himself.) A good portion of Part One is taken up by Mickey's wordsmithing neighbor's translation of Marco Topo's diary, and, once the gang gets to Venice, all of the action takes place in a single square in the city's GettoNovo district. Scarpa does pay good attention to local color in setting the action during the Carnival of Venice and using a real podium in the square as a key marker in the search for the ornament, but I rather wish that "The Maestro" had made use of a few more locations in his native city. What makes the story work are the believable interactions between the characters -- and here, Joe and David Gerstein shine. Everyone gets something to do (though The Blot spends most of his time skulking around in the background and muttering to himself before making one big push for the McGuffin near the end), and everyone is written perfectly in character. It "feels" very much like a modern-day version of the Gold Key PHANTOM BLOT comic, in which the writers effortlessly mixed and matched various characters to extremely good effect.

There are a couple of weak spots in the plot that Joe and David, try as they might, can't quite manage to paper over. If the spirit of Marco Topo is doomed to hang around the square until some descendant finds his ornament, then shouldn't Marco have made double-extra sure that his descendants would be able to find the instructions for locating the ornament a bit more easily? Even Mickey would have had a hard time finding Topo's diary had Pete not crushed The Mouse's newly-inherited "18th-century cupboard" with a steamroller and revealed the precious parchments "hidden in the paneling." At least Topo doesn't appear to particularly regret his foolishness, even getting into the spirit of the Carnival revelers who enjoy playing pranks on Mickey and his friends. A more serious (and frankly annoying) issue arises when the Carnival-goers greet Mickey's gang as...

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E

... stars of a reality series back home. Oog! Here, Joe and David were trying to make sense of the obvious fact that the Venetians clearly recognize Mickey and his gang as "celebrities" of some sort. However, I would have tried to tie the explanation into previously established Disney material, as opposed to riffing on The Jersey Shore. How about regarding the House of Mouse short cartoons as "reality TV" of a sort... or DuckTales as "The Further Adventures of the Famous Scrooge McDuck with a Camera Along"? We could then explain the presence of Trudy and Brigitta by positing that they appeared in "later seasons" of HOMand/or DT -- seasons that we unlucky denizens of "Earth Prime" never got to see but the inhabitants of "Earth-Disney" did. Anything is preferable to trying to figure out which of the cast members of Calisota Shore corresponds to "Snooki."

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E

F
I
N
I
T
O

Picked nits aside, this was a most delightful way to conclude Boom!'s tenure on the "classic Disney" titles. Uh... over to you, Stan? (And I don't mean Blather.)

5 comments:

Thanks for the kind words… especially regarding “The Last Line”! That was bittersweet to write but, I believe, effective! It certainly said what *I* wanted to say, at the very least.

Regarding the aspect of the script that you didn’t like…

Did you not like it because it does a riff on the absurdity of modern reality shows (assuming you hold such abominations of television programming in the same contempt that I do)?

Or, did you just not like it as a solution – period? …There is a difference!

You see, David and I found ourselves “painted into a corner”, when we encountered this aspect of Scarpa’s tale. And, please absolve David from any and all responsibility… the credit or blame for this plot element is all mine.

I believe we could be having “meta” debates from now until doomsday, if I were to suggest that the Gang’s celebrity was derived from DuckTales and House of Mouse! And that could run the risk of becoming a PERMANENTLY ADDED plot element in the minds of some. Sometimes this is good… like establishing that Mickey lives in Mouseton and that Uncle Scrooge had a “Life and Times”… and other times it becomes a barnacle. Directly connecting our characters with DT and HOM, as television programs in their world, would be a “barnacle”! Everyone’s mileage may vary on this argument, but REALLY… given the esteem (or infamy) in which fans hold DT and HOM, isn’t this the less controversial choice?

Besides, there was the dilemma that second-stringers like Brigitta and Trudy were equally as well-known as Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Scrooge. How could that be?

The answer – and I believe the BEST answer – was to have made ALL of them the fleetingly famous subject of a reality show, which even Minnie (in the last panel of the story) tells us will soon be forgotten! That’s the KEY to it. It will soon be forgotten, and their lives will return to normal – probably long before we see the next issue of WDC&S!

There’s one additional aspect to my choice that many may not consider. Perhaps I chose the “reality show angle” with the thought of satirizing both the genre and its fans – not unlike that way Carl Barks might have done in his ‘60s work!

I get to solve the “celebrity conundrum” in a way is easily and quite passively reversible – and get to jab at something I find distasteful!

"Regarding the aspect of the script that you didn’t like…Did you not like it because it does a riff on the absurdity of modern reality shows (assuming you hold such abominations of television programming in the same contempt that I do)?Or, did you just not like it as a solution – period? …There is a difference!"

Actually, my thinking followed a third path. While it is certainly possible for me to imagine a Duck-and-Mouse "reality show" becoming hugely popular in Europe, I find it somewhat difficult to believe that the Gang I know and love would AGREE to be "exploited" in such a manner unless the format of the "reality show" were much more complimentary to them as personalities. I realize that "Jersey Shore" is one of the current hot properties in the "reality" field, but I can more easily imagine the Ducks and Mice willingly getting involved with a more action-focused "reality show" like "Mouse and Duck vs. Wild" or some such. That would play to their strengths as adventure-seekers. "Calisota Shore," by contrast, sounds uncomfortably close to what I once termed "Ranger Tree 90210" in another context.

"Directly connecting our characters with DT and HOM, as television programs in their world, would be a “barnacle”! Everyone’s mileage may vary on this argument, but REALLY… given the esteem (or infamy) in which fans hold DT and HOM, isn’t this the less controversial choice?"

Actually, I think that using HOM shorts, in particular, as a version of "reality TV" makes a fair bit of sense! I will grant that DT is a much trickier case, given the changes in the cast, absence of Donald, etc. But the gang's experiences in HOM shorts would actually represent an UPTICK in the quality of the typical "domestic reality show." If you couldn't do a strictly adventure-based show -- which might be difficult, given the unexpected nature of many of the adventures into which Mickey and friends get swept -- then the scenarios presented in HOM would probably be the next best thing. There, at least, the character dynamics are funny, interesting, and generally non-dysfunctional (visits from Daisy and trouble made by Pete aside).

"There’s one additional aspect to my choice that many may not consider. Perhaps I chose the “reality show angle” with the thought of satirizing both the genre and its fans – not unlike that way Carl Barks might have done in his ‘60s work! I get to solve the “celebrity conundrum” in a way is easily and quite passively reversible – and get to jab at something I find distasteful!"

I did get some sense of that in the portrayal of the Venetians who swoon over the Gang, but I think that the point could have been punched over a little more effectively with one or two more pungent gags. For example, I imagine that Brigitta, in particular, might embrace her role in such a show (why not, it allows "the whole world" to see her devotion to Scrooge) and display it in some way. But I do realize that you and David were somewhat constrained in terms of how much you could fit into the story.

On balance, despite my objection to the SPECIFIC "reality show" that was referenced, I think that you and David handled the situation pretty well, given the scenario that Scarpa handed to you. Given a choice between having to posit Calisotan "reality TV" and not seeing this story in print at all, I'll gladlysettle for the former.

Though, I believe you now appreciate what a “sticky-wicket” that referencing DuckTales and House of Mouse could have been – as opposed to what I “threw out there” to be utilized in service to the plot and quickly forgotten.

If you saw the comments from an Italian poster on my Blog, it seems that (according to Scarpa – and perhaps other Italian authors) that Mickey and the Gang are celebrities in Italy because they APPEAR WEEKLY IN TOPOLINO!

Honestly, now… With 70 years of American continuity of the characters being (Ahem!) “Ordinary Joes”, what in the world was I supposed to do with that?

Introducing DuckTales and House of Mouse would only have dug the hole deeper still!

True, I might have “created” a reality show that (if I understand your objection correctly) painted the characters in a better light… but, I was forced to use “Scripter’s Shorthand” in selling it.

The balloons offered me little room for elaboration of the “Disney Characters and Their Daring True-Life Adventures” sort of thing you appear to suggest.

Just writing the words “Calisota Shore” conveyed my meaning perfectly within the available space! And there’s nobody who didn’t get the joke!

Besides, the crowd regarded Mickey as competent and capable, Goofy as goofy, and Pete as a “louse” – so, I’d say, despite any similarities in the show’s title to something in our own world, our characters were portrayed honestly and accurately.

"Just writing the words “Calisota Shore” conveyed my meaning perfectly within the available space! And there’s nobody who didn’t get the joke!" A very lame joke/pun.Don't get me wrong: stereotypes are part of human life (we've cliché about profession like politics, about nation like France, Uk, Usa...). But the specific situation (and the respect for this little masterpiece) demands a little effort to find a better solution than a link between Disney's characters and a poor excuse of tv program (even for a realiuty show).

When Carl Barks satirized things like “Shoeless Pashley” and “Tweedy Teentwirp” in his UNCLE SCROOGE stories of the “Elvis” and “Beatles” eras, respectively, would you have leveled the same criticism at him?

…Because that was EXACTLY what I was doing for the “Reality Show” era. I’d say I was following a good example, wouldn’t you?